preferash
Verified buyer
06/12/26
Systematic and very useful!
DIY Country Blues Guitar
Learn How to Play Country Blues Songs Like The Pros
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About this course
Learning how to play Country Blues guitar can appear challenging at first, but if you build a solid foundation of techniques, from the ground up, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can get up and running.
Gareth Pearson’s DIY Country Blues course is an accelerated series of step-by-step, hands-on lessons designed to build your foundation and get you up and running quickly.
”We’ll play our way through this entire course starting at level 1, where we focus on alternating bass-lines and thumb independence - an absolute MUST for country blues.
In level 2, we’ll work on building right-hand syncopation between the bass-lines and melody notes. Level 3 focuses on arpeggio-based banjo roll exercises, and in level 4, we’ll tackle the “claw”, a pianistic approach you gotta know. Finally, in the fifth level we focus on cascading, banjo-style licks and embellishments that are essential in Country Blues.
Once you’ve polished your skills by learning to play the first five performance studies, you’ll be ready to take on our final DIY performance study - an original Country Blues tune that incorporates everything you will have learned in the course.
Work through the entire course and you will have the skills to apply these universal techniques across the entire Country Blues songbook.” Gareth will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies.
Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. Grab your guitar and let's dig in with Gareth Pearson!
Gareth Pearson’s DIY Country Blues course is an accelerated series of step-by-step, hands-on lessons designed to build your foundation and get you up and running quickly.
”We’ll play our way through this entire course starting at level 1, where we focus on alternating bass-lines and thumb independence - an absolute MUST for country blues.
In level 2, we’ll work on building right-hand syncopation between the bass-lines and melody notes. Level 3 focuses on arpeggio-based banjo roll exercises, and in level 4, we’ll tackle the “claw”, a pianistic approach you gotta know. Finally, in the fifth level we focus on cascading, banjo-style licks and embellishments that are essential in Country Blues.
Once you’ve polished your skills by learning to play the first five performance studies, you’ll be ready to take on our final DIY performance study - an original Country Blues tune that incorporates everything you will have learned in the course.
Work through the entire course and you will have the skills to apply these universal techniques across the entire Country Blues songbook.” Gareth will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies.
Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. Grab your guitar and let's dig in with Gareth Pearson!
What you'll learn
- Master arpeggio-based banjo roll patterns
- Create moving bass lines with the thumb while maintaining upper string patterns
- Execute the claw technique with middle and ring fingers linked together
- Learn the Claw technique for pianistic playing
- Build right-hand syncopation skills
Release date: 04/16/2020 • 1h 15m runtime
Sample lessons
Level 3: Banjo Rolls
Performance
Level 4: The Claw
Performance
Blues for a Dollar
Overview
Blues for a Dollar
Performance
What's included
23 lessons • 6 charts
DIY Country Blues
Hi, I'm Gareth Pearson. Welcome to DIY Country Blues!
Learning how to play country blues tunes can be challenging for sure, but if you focus your time and efforts on the most essential techniques and approaches you'll be amazed at how quickly you can get there. This accelerated, efficient approach is exactly what DIY country blues is all about. We'll play our way through this entire course starting at level 1, where we focus on alternating basslines and thumb independence - an absolute MUST for country blues. In level 2, we'll work on building right hand syncopation between the basslines and melody notes. Level 3 focuses on arpeggio-based banjo roll exercises. In level 4, we'll tackle the "claw," a pianistic approach you gotta know. And in the fifth level we focus on cascading, banjo-style licks. Once you've polished your skills in the first five performance studies, you'll be ready to take on our final DIY piece - an original country blues tune that incorporates everything we've worked on so far.
Ready to get started? Grab your guitar and your favorite thumb pick, and let's get to pickin'.
Learning how to play country blues tunes can be challenging for sure, but if you focus your time and efforts on the most essential techniques and approaches you'll be amazed at how quickly you can get there. This accelerated, efficient approach is exactly what DIY country blues is all about. We'll play our way through this entire course starting at level 1, where we focus on alternating basslines and thumb independence - an absolute MUST for country blues. In level 2, we'll work on building right hand syncopation between the basslines and melody notes. Level 3 focuses on arpeggio-based banjo roll exercises. In level 4, we'll tackle the "claw," a pianistic approach you gotta know. And in the fifth level we focus on cascading, banjo-style licks. Once you've polished your skills in the first five performance studies, you'll be ready to take on our final DIY piece - an original country blues tune that incorporates everything we've worked on so far.
Ready to get started? Grab your guitar and your favorite thumb pick, and let's get to pickin'.
Country Blues Primer
In this course we'll take a look at 5 different levels and work our way up to our final piece at the end, which will incorporate something we've learned from each level. Take your time and get comfortable with each level before moving on to the next. Let's dig in to level 1!
Level 1: The Pinch
To become a true 'one person band' in country blues music, we need to train the right thumb to create standard alternative bass lines, while our fingers pluck the chords. This is deceivingly difficult if you've never done this before, so please take your time and remember, you're conducting an entire rhythm section here!
Level 1: The Pinch
To become a true 'one person band' in country blues music, we need to train the right thumb to create standard alternative bass lines, while our fingers pluck the chords. This is deceivingly difficult if you've never done this before, so please take your time and remember, you're conducting an entire rhythm section here!
Level 1: The Pinch
To become a true 'one person band' in country blues music, we need to train the right thumb to create standard alternative bass lines, while our fingers pluck the chords. This is deceivingly difficult if you've never done this before, so please take your time and remember, you're conducting an entire rhythm section here!
Level 2: RH Syncopation
After developing a standard thumb picking technique, we can naturally progress to allow the fingers on the right hand to play more intricate patterns and arpeggiated notes over chord changes. So in this exercise, our right thumb will continue to provide the alternative baseline, while our index and middle fingers will provide a simple melody.
Level 2: RH Syncopation
After developing a standard thumb picking technique, we can naturally progress to allow the fingers on the right hand to play more intricate patterns and arpeggiated notes over chord changes. So in this exercise, our right thumb will continue to provide the alternative baseline, while our index and middle fingers will provide a simple melody.
+ 16 more lessons
Reviews
16 results
leeofcalifornia
Verified buyer
09/19/25
Review of DIY Country Blues Guitar
This is a very fun course and gives the essentials of this genre with material that is a joy to play and practice. This is a great foundation course for learning this genre. Good job!
g0j0e
Verified buyer
07/09/25
DIY Country Blues
Very informative, easy to follow, great tunes to learn
foggywim
Verified buyer
12/23/24
Graham Pearson Amazing Teacher
Amazing course…Amazing Teacher…
brownbag39
Verified buyer
10/10/21
I've just started it but so far I like it. I'll probably look for Gareth Pearson's name in the future.
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